


My friends have always been the best of me

by useless_fangirl_does_fanart



Category: ER (TV 1994)
Genre: Girls' Night Out, because I wanted to have a nice sweet fic about our ER ladies, but it's mainly fluff, just a tiny fanfic, mentions of Mark's death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28650138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/useless_fangirl_does_fanart/pseuds/useless_fangirl_does_fanart
Summary: Abby organizes a night out with all of her female co-workers, as they usually do, because she has an announcement to make...
Relationships: Carol Hathaway/Doug Ross, Luka Kovač/Abby Lockhart, Michael Gallant/Neela Rasgotra, Susan Lewis/Kerry Weaver
Comments: 12
Kudos: 10





	My friends have always been the best of me

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by ["matriarchs"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24111415) by [bwayfan25](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bwayfan25/pseuds/bwayfan25). 



> This is a tiny fanfic without pretension because I needed some ER ladies feels and I shamelessly indulged in it. Just so you know, this is set in the "matriarchs" universe, a wonderful fic written by the amazing @bwayfan25 because her AU is way better than canon, and it replaced it in my head for good. If you want to understand some relationship or characters’ presence, I urge you to read it. On the off chance you don’t (and know that you’re truly missing out on some quality content), here are the things to know:  
> 1) Kerry and Susan are together and have 3 daughters: Annie, Suzie, and Charlie.  
> 2) Lucy never got stabbed.  
> 3) Doug, Carol, and Elizabeth never left County.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> (Yes, the title is a quote from the Doctor. No, I’m not ashamed in the slightest lmao.)

Neela handed cash to the taxi driver before turning around. She was facing the illuminated façade of a downtown Chicago bar. Some customers were smoking outside, and you could see people dancing inside through the large window. She made to enter but she stopped just before attaining the front door. She took a big breath and tried to shake down her uneasiness. This was getting ridiculous. It would be her first night out since Michael went back to Iraq, and she couldn’t help but feel guilty. She shouldn’t be having fun while her husband was at war. But she also felt that she deserved this, though. He made his decision against all her pleas, but more importantly, he wouldn’t wish her to stop living while he was away. She took a deep breath and entered the bar.

The heat and the noise hit her like an ocean wave. It took her a few seconds to adapt to the semi-darkness of the bar, but she was soon making her way inside, looking for her friend. She then heard her name, and she saw Sam waving at her. A smile bloomed on her face and she hurried toward the table, dodging some inebriated customers on her way. Everyone was already here but Abby which was odd since she organized this evening. She sat down between Chuny and Sam. Next to Chuny was Haleh, deep in a conversation with Lucy. On the other side of the box were Kerry and Susan, Elizabeth, and Carol. They were seemingly just arriving as well, seeing as Carol was still unwrapping her scarf and Susan was battling to fold everyone’s coat on the chair next to her.

Everyone saluted everyone and the conversations started again. Haleh and Lucy were talking about how obnoxious Carter was during the day: apparently, he had once again completely disregarded Lucy’s opinion and the young doctor was very annoyed. She had been working with him for six years and he was treating her like she was still the med student he met then. Neela was talking with Chuny and Sam about some patient’s case they worked on together during the day while Kerry, Susan, Elizabeth, and Carol were making fun of Doug. They had let him in charge of the girls for the nights and the thoughts of him having to manage the Weaver-Levin-Lewis girls and Ella, as well as his daughters, was hilarious. He already had a hard time stopping Kate and Tess from turning him crazy and the girls could do whatever they wanted with their father so adding Annie, Suzie, Charlie and Ella in the mix promised to prove very interesting. They were already begging him for a night with takeout and a movie when they had left, though none of them agreed on which one.

After ten or fifteen minutes, Sam cleared her throat:

“I don’t know what's Abby doing but I don’t plan on waiting for her forever. I’m going to order something to drink, who’s with me?”

“I am,” exclaimed Lucy, “What is Abby doing anyway?”

“I just got a text, should be here any minutes now.” smiled Neela.

“Okay then, ladies, time to tell me what you’ll plan tomorrow’s hangover with,” grinned Sam.

While everyone was ordering, Neela fell silent. She observed this vibrant group of women in front of her and found herself smiling. She had missed this. While Sam and Lucy left, Kerry turned to Neela:

“Neela, I meant to ask this morning, but I hadn’t had the chance: how’s Michael? Is he readapting well?”

Everyone’s attention fell on the young woman. She stared back at them for a few seconds, unable to decide if she wanted to have this conversation right now. It was no secret for anyone that he went back against her wish, but she wasn’t sure how much people had talked. She eventually settled for a short yet true enough answer.

“He’s fine. We haven’t talked much, to be honest.”

“Oh, well, let him know that we think of him next time you got the chance,” answered Kerry in a soft voice, realizing that she might have struck a chord.

Neela nodded with a little smile before falling into silence. Kerry turned her head to Susan and grimaced. She had wanted to inquire about the young surgeon since she knew that Michael’s departure had been hard for her, but she missed tact. Susan shrugged and smiled at her.

“You could have brought this a bit more tactfully; I grant you that,” she whispered.

“Yeah, well at least, I dared take some news, unlike almost everyone.”

“I know, don’t worry,” said Susan as she took her wife’s hand and squeezed it in a reassuring gesture.

Sam and Lucy arrived back, the arms full of drinks, exactly when Abby arrived. Everyone cheered.

“Finally! We thought you’d bailed on us. Did you get lost?” joked Carol.

“Not exactly. I had a slight freezing engine problem, so I had to take the El.” sighed Abby.

“Chicago in winter, don’t you love it?” said Susan in full sarcasm mode.

Everyone laughed and the women started drinking as soon as Abby’d ordered herself a drink. Soon, the atmosphere got even lighter as it was already, the alcohol and each other company working its magic. The jokes flew thick and fast and the conversations went strong. A couple of hours later, once everyone had a bite, Abby cleared her throat. The women fell quiet.

“So, I guess you’ve all been wondering why I asked you all out tonight.”

They all chuckled and nodded.

“Yeah, spill the tea, I’ve been dying to know,” exclaimed Sam.

Neela, Kerry and Susan smiled, already knowing was Abby was most likely to announce.

“As you all know, I’ve been dating Luka again for quite some time again,” Chuny, Haleh, Sam and Lucy cheered at that, “But that’s not everything there is to it. Some of you here already know while others strongly suspect it.”

“I knew it!” cheered Elizabeth, her smile the widest.

“What?” exclaimed Sam and Lucy, “Come on Abby, stop with the secret!” added Lucy.

Abby chuckled.

“I’m pregnant!” she announced, her smile as wide as Elizabeth’s.

Everyone cheered around the table and applause erupted. Elizabeth pulled Abby into a tight hug while everyone voiced their congratulations.

“So, how far are you?” asked Carol, “And who knew?”

“We did,” answered Kerry. She turned to Abby, “We had a couple reunions to figure out the shifts schedule. I’m sorry Abby but I couldn’t keep it from Susan. She was wondering why you needed me so early to the hospital on days when neither of us was working. You all know how persistent she is!” she laughed.

Susan feigned indignation while Abby shook her head laughing.

“I kinda knew it. I mean, we all know that what Kerry knows, Susan knows and vice-versa. You’re a packaged deal.”

“I did too.” smiled Neela.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” nodded Carol.

“So, how far are you?” prompted Haleh again.

“13 weeks,” beamed Abby.

“Congratulations! We finally have the chance to get rid of all our baby clothing. Prepare to be showered with tiny pyjamas and cute bobble hat,” joked Susan.

“You know what? I have a box full of beanies in my car’s truck, I could give them to you right now.” smiled Elizabeth.

“I appreciate it, but I don’t see myself riding the El with a box full of baby hats.” laughed Abby.

“We could organize something at the hospital though. I probably still have some of Alex’s clothes somewhere,” suggested Sam.

Everyone approved of the idea and soon, the conversation went on as vividly as before. At some point, Sam, Chuny and Lucy went out to smoke. Abby watched them go with envy before returning to the conversations. She watched everyone and noticed that Neela was very quiet. She knew her friend had a hard time coping with Michael’s being away and she wished there were something she could do. At that point, Carol asked her if there was some sonograms to see and Abby was pulled back in the conversation.

A few minutes later, Neela excused herself and went to the bathroom. No one noticed but Elizabeth. She had been quiet herself for a moment now, and she had noticed her fellow surgeon’s silence as well. While she wasn’t very close to Neela in the first place, since the young woman had decided on taking a surgical internship, their relationship had grown into a mentorship or some kind of friendship. And she had noticed that Neela was elsewhere since her husband went back to Iraq. She excused herself and followed the young woman to the toilet.

“Neela? Are you all right?” she said while entering the room and seeing her lost in her thoughts, staring mindlessly to her reflect.

Neela jumped when hearing the voice of the older surgeon.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just needed to refresh a bit. It’s bloody hot in there!” she tried to joke.

Elizabeth looked at her closely. She wanted to comfort her but didn’t know if their current relationship allowed it. She finally settled for an innocent, yet personal enough question, so that Neela could decide if she wanted to answer or not.

“You’ve been quite distant lately. Do you want to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“I don’t know. What’s bothering you might be a good start,” she answered, softly smiling.

“Oh, I don’t want to annoy you with that. I’ve been through this already last time, I just need time to readjust, don’t worry.” Neela tried to reassure the older woman.

“What have you been through already?”

“You know, the usual: missing him, being sort of angry…” she made a dismissive gesture with her hand, as to indicate that it was nothing.

“At Michael?”

“Yeah… I know I shouldn’t but…” her voice trailed off as she started to look very closely at her hands, clearly ashamed.

“Oh, no sweetie! You absolutely can. It’s a normal feeling, you know. When Mark died I… I felt angry at him, for leaving everyone behind like that. He made the conscious decision to stop fighting the tumour even though he left a wife and two daughters behind. And while I understand his decisions now and I forgave him, I was angry for a long time… I felt guilty, but you know, it’s okay. Our feelings are valid too.”

Neela looked as Elizabeth as if she had just revealed the secret of the universe. Tears welled up in her eyes and she started talking but her words got choked up.

“I just wish he didn’t go back! I told him I didn’t… I told him I didn’t want to and now… Now, he could be injured or… Or…”

She started sobbing uncontrollably, her body jerking off as she was trying to gasp some air. Elizabeth closed the distance between them and hugged the young woman. She started rubbing circle on her back until the sobs came to a stop.

“It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay and he will too. He came back the first time, there’s no reason he won’t this one around.” she said while holding Neela at arm's length, her eyes firmly planted in hers, as to engrave her words in her mind.

Neela slowly nodded and wiped her tears.

“Besides, you have us if you need support, right? You have Abby and you can always summon a dance night with everyone when you feel down,” smiled Elizabeth.

Neela nodded.

“I missed those nights, to be honest. I missed you guys, even though you speak too loudly, and you make suspicious jokes. You’re also always terribly drunk before midnight because half of you is usually in bed by 9 pm,” she chuckled.

“Ahh, that’s what I like to hear. And as for us being in bed by 9 pm, you try being a mum and a doctor. You’ll see when you’ll have children if you ever want to.” said Elizabeth with a falsely accusing finger. “Should we go back then? I’m sure we missed quite a few dodgy yet hilarious jokes while we were here.”

“Yeah, lets’ go,” Neela said as she bypassed Elizabeth to open the door.

“Oh, and Neela?”

She turned around.

“Yeah?”

“If you ever need to talk, whether it’s at work or somewhen else, feel free to reach to me, okay?”

“I will, thanks.”

The two women made their way back to the table and found that the smokers weren’t back yet. On the other hand, Carol and Susan were in the middle of a fit of laughter while Kerry was seemingly pouting.

“What’s happening to you two?” asked Elizabeth.

Susan and Carol tried to catch their breath and started explaining.

“Well, you see, my wife over here is starting to be quite drunk and she asked me and Carol if we were together!” Susan managed to let out between two giggles.

At those words, both Susan and Carol started laughing even harder while Neela smiled at Elizabeth.

“See? Drunk before midnight! How come you’re not in such a state by the way?”

“I’m the designated driver for the night.” she shrugged. “Are you all right Kerry?”

Kerry turned her head slowly, still vexed.

“Yes, I am! Those two are completely mistelling what’s happened _because they are drunker than me_!” she said in an annoyed voice. “I was asking them if they were together on the afternoon shift next Monday because Carter asked me to switch one of his shifts and I needed to figure out a new schedule.”

“I see. First of, Kerry, it’s an evening out, you shouldn’t even be thinking about work,” Elizabeth said with a pointed look while Kerry smiled sheepishly, “And second, I just hope they won’t wake up the girls when we arrived.”

“I wouldn’t count on that if I were you” chuckled Kerry. She then turned her attention on Susan, “When you’ll be finished making fun of me, how about some coffee? If Charlie sees you in such a state, she’ll be saying to everyone that you’re crazy Mommy for a week!”

“She won’t! I’m not that drunk.” dismissed Susan but when she leaned on to kiss Kerry, she lost her equilibrium and landed quite disgracefully on her wife.

“Yeah, right!” smiled Kerry. “I’m gonna go order a pot of coffee for everyone.”

On the other end of the table, Abby and Haleh were in the middle of a conversation about how Luka was adapting to the idea of being a father again, but they were interrupted by a very drunk Carol asking them to go the karaoke floor with her. A karaoke floor that didn’t exist obviously. They both shook their head and took Carol’s drink away. They needed to dial down on boose during those nights out.

When the smokers returned, it was almost midnight already. Some of the nurses and doctor who had been on an early shift this day were starting to yawn while the others were quite drunk. Silence fell on the table, apart from some quiet conversations between Abby and Haleh on one side of the table and Lucy and Sam on the other. Susan was now sleeping on Kerry’s shoulder while Neela and Elizabeth were dozing off and Carol was mindlessly checking her phone. Chuny broke the semi-silence first.

“Ok ladies, I’m off! It was nice seeing you all and congratulations again Abby! Can’t wait to welcome a new ER baby!”

“Thanks, Chuny! I think I’m gonna go too, guys. I’m really tired and I’m on at 6 tomorrow.”

“Same,” added Lucy.

“Okay, then I guess that’s our queue too. I just received a text from Doug asking when we were coming back anyway.” yawned Carol.

Sensing it was the end of their little girls’ night out, everyone started to get up and dress. Kerry gently stroked Susan’s cheek to wake her up while Elizabeth went out to start the car. All the woman congratulated Abby again and they were soon all on their way.

Neela and Abby were the last to exit the bar and they went to take the El, closely following Chuny, Sam, and Haleh who were talking about the nursing shift distribution. They walked in silence for a few minutes until Abby cleared her throat.

“Are you all right Neela?”

“Yeah, I am. Why?”

“Come on, don’t do that. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t think that because I’m having a baby, I’m suddenly oblivious.”

“I don’t!” Neela said in an offended tone, “I just don’t want to worry you when you already have so much on your plate, that’s all.”

“Your silence doesn’t keep me from being worried Neela,” said Abby with a soft voice, “It just prevents me from helping you.”

Neela stayed quiet.

“Hey, look at me.”

Abby stopped and took her friend's hands in hers.

“You can talk to me okay? Don’t stay alone with your thoughts, it’s not good!”

“You can talk!” scoffed Neela.

“Just because I do it doesn’t mean I don’t know it’s stupid, silly you!”

“I know. I will reach out if I need to, okay? But right now, I just had a very good time with you all and I don’t want to spoil the night with that. But I will, I promise!”

“Okay, fine. Let’s go then.”

The two women started making their way to the El station, happily taking comfort in each other’s presence. Life isn’t easy, but as long as you have friends in yours, things always look a bit brighter.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I hadn’t planned it, but this ended as a pretty Neela centric fic, which is weird because I was never really obsessed with her. I mean, I love her, but you know, she’s not one of the show’s character I think about the most. I wanted to write a choral-ish fic but it’s so hard! I always ended up writing from someone’s point of view. Kudos to all the writers out there who manage to do it, you are truly gifted! I hope you liked this anyway. Oh, and if you have any feedback on my writing or my characterization or whatever, I’d be honoured to receive them!  
> Lots of love <3


End file.
